Introduction to the Devout Life

How to Resist Minor Temptations

Part IV, Chapter 8 (St. Francis de Sales (Doctor of the Church)

“While it is right to resist great temptations with invincible courage, and all such victories will be most valuable, still there is perhaps more absolute profit to our souls in resisting little ones. For although the greater temptations exceed in power, there are so infinitely more in number of little temptations, that a victory over them is fully as important as over the greater but rarer ones. No one will question but that wolves and bears are more dangerous than flies, but they do not worry and annoy us, or try our patience as these do. While is not a hard thing to abstain from murder, but it is very difficult to avoid all passing fits of anger, which assail us at every moment. A man or woman can easily keep from adultery, but it is less easy to abstain from all words and glances which are disloyal. While is easy to keep from stealing another man's goods, but often difficult to resist coveting them; easy to avoid bearing false witness in direct judgment, difficult to be perfectly truthful in conversation; easy to refrain from getting drunk, difficult to be absolutely sober; easy not to wish for a neighbour's death, difficult not to wish anything contrary to his interests; easy to keep from slander, difficult to avoid all contempt.

In short, all these minor temptations to anger, suspicion, jealousy, envy, levity, vanity, duplicity, affectation, foolish thoughts, and the like, are a perpetual trial even to those who are most devout and most resolute; and therefore, my child, we ought carefully and diligently to prepare for this warfare. Be assured that every victory won over these little foes is as a precious stone in the crown of glory which God prepares for us in Paradise. So, while awaiting and making ready for a stedfast and brave resistance to great temptations should they come, let us not fail diligently to fight against these meaner, weaker foes.”

Unchaste Thoughts and Desires
by Fr. Johann Evangelist Zollner, 1883

"Why do you think evil in your hearts?"--Matt. 9: 4.

Part II.

1. What ought to be our conduct in unchaste thoughts and desires? If we are assailed by impure thoughts and desires, we ought:

(a.) To offer earnest resistance in the very beginning. The resistance must be made in the beginning, that we may not sin, for he who does not fight against and banish the impure thoughts and desires in the very moment in which he perceives them to be sinful, commits at least a venial sin, as already remarked. They must be resisted in the beginning, that we may more easily overcome them. It is with impure temptations as with a spark which falls upon an unflammable object. You can easily extinguish it and prevent a conflagration, but if you neglect it for a little while, the spark will kindle a great fire which cannot be checked and controlled at all, or only with the greatest difficulty. Hence St. Augustine says: ''If a bad thought arises in you, and you banish it at once, your heart will not be defiled by it, or at least will again obtain its purity, but if you leave it in your heart for any length of time, you can banish it only with difficulty and great labor." Hence an ancient poet says: "Resist the beginning; too late is medicine administered when by long delay the evil has grown strong."

(b.) The resistance must be earnest. St. Ignatius very appropriately compares an impure temptation to a woman who, when she quarrels with her husband, takes to flight when she finds earnest resistance, but clamors and rages the worse the more the man shows himself timid and resists only weakly. If we show ourselves weak against our tempter, he becomes bolder and more impetuous; he will perhaps succeed in overcoming our weak resistance and win a complete victory. But if we offer an earnest and determined resistance in the beginning, he generally loses courage for the continuation of the contest, for he sees that he gains nothing by his assaults. The thought that the salvation of our soul is endangered ought to animate us to earnest resistance. What a calamity it would be to consent to the temptation and sin grievously! This resistance, however, must not be impetuous, but considerate and calm; we must avert our thoughts from the impure object and direct them to eternal truths, such as the four last things to be remembered, and to Jesus Christ, our crucified Redeemer.

2. To call upon God for help. Solomon did this, saying: "As I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord and besought him with my whole heart."--Wisd. 8: 21. St. Francis of Sales says: "As soon as you perceive a temptation, do as little children who, when they see a bear or a wolf, run to their father or mother, or at least cry for help; in like manner have recourse to God and ask His help and mercy." Our Saviour himself furnishes you with this means when He says: "Pray, that you enter not into temptation." Frequently make the sign of the Cross, for, as St. Augustine says, "through the power of the Cross all the assaults of the devil are frustrated."

3. Not to be discouraged when the temptation lasts a long time, but persevere in the use of the means, until you obtain the victory. Christians who have long and permanent temptations to endure must, first of all, consider what is the cause of these temptations, and regulate their conduct accordingly.

(a) He who in time past has often sinned against purity, usually afterwards endures many unchaste temptations. Thus we read of the holy penitent, Margaret of Cortona, that she was very much tormented by great temptations exactly as many years as she had lived a sinful life. Christians with whom impure temptations have this origin, must humble themselves before God and mortify themselves a great deal, in order to prevent a relapse.

(b) Impure temptations have their origin often in this, that people are not watchful enough, allow too much liberty to their senses, and do not with proper care avoid occasions. Many do not guard their eyes, those inlets of criminal passion, are too free in their intercourse with persons of the opposite sex, or nourish and foster a too sensible inclination for a certain person. Such persons are in imminent danger of losing their souls; they must stop the sources of their temptations, otherwise they can never get rid of the temptations themselves.

(c) Many are greatly tormented by unchaste thoughts and desires without giving occasion to them, for they lead a retired, mortified life, and diligently fulfil their religious duties. Such Christians must not be disquieted, for these temptations are no loss to them, but rather gain. God permits them to be tempted in order to keep them in humility, to preserve them from tepidity and levity and to afford them an opportunity for practising various virtues and increasing their merits. They must, however, redouble their watchfulness and fervor in prayer and often excite themselves to the love of God in order to keep all danger of consenting to the temptations away. The advice may also be given to them to disclose their temptations in the confessional, for "a revealed temptation is already half conquered."--St. Philip Neri

PERORATION:

This is what you must do when you are assailed by unchaste thoughts and desires: You must offer an earnest resistance in the very beginning, and call upon God for grace and help. If the temptation lasts, you must not be discouraged, but persevere in the use of the appropriate means, and as much as possible avoid everything that might afford an occasion for impure temptations. If you are not wanting in what is required for the overcoming of every temptation on your side, you may rest assured that God will do His share, for, as the Apostle says, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it."--I. Cor. 10: 13. Amen.

"Our whole life," says the devout St. Bernard, "is nothing but one long temptation"

Saint Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae > First Part of the Second Part > Question 74

Delight in the thought of an evil thing, if it be full, is mortal sin

“But that a man in thinking of fornication takes pleasure in the act thought of, is due to his desire being inclined to this act. Wherefore the fact that a man consents to such a delectation, amounts to nothing less than a consent to the inclination of his appetite to fornication: for no man takes pleasure except in that which is in conformity with his appetite. Now it is a mortal sin, if a man deliberately chooses that his appetite be conformed to what is in itself a mortal sin. Wherefore such a consent to delectation in a mortal sin, is itself a mortal sin…”